Which Images Am I Allowed to Use on My Website? Copyright, Stock and Warning-Letter Traps

Copying an image from Google search and dropping it onto your own website - that is the classic mistake that ends up costing you. Images are protected by copyright, and in Germany a single wrongly used photo is enough to trigger a fee-based warning letter (Abmahnung). The good news: a few clear rules keep you on the safe side. We run seven of our own brands in production and had to clear every image source properly along the way - here is what really matters.

The basic rule: every image belongs to someone

In Germany, copyright arises automatically the moment a photo is taken. No copyright symbol is needed, no registration. Which means the reverse is also true: any image you did not create yourself is off-limits by default - unless you hold a licence or have explicit permission.

Common misconceptions that lead to trouble:

• Found online does not mean free to use. Even if an image is freely accessible without a watermark, it remains protected.
• Crediting the source is not enough. An attribution note is no substitute for a licence. Without usage rights, even a correctly credited image is an infringement.
• Only online briefly does not make it legal. Even a short publication can prompt a warning letter.
• Screenshots, logos and product photos of other companies are protected too - often additionally by trademark law.

Which image sources are safe?

There are several clean ways to obtain images. Which one fits depends on your budget and your standards:

• Your own photos. Whatever you photograph yourself belongs to you. Be careful with people in the frame (consent required) and with third-party brands or artworks visible in the shot.
• Paid stock platforms such as Adobe Stock, iStock or Shutterstock. You buy a licence and get clear terms of use. The standard route for commercial websites.
• Free stock platforms such as Unsplash, Pexels or Pixabay. The images can usually be used commercially as well, often without attribution. But: read the licence in each individual case, as it can change.
• Creative Commons images. Here it comes down to the abbreviation. CC0 is effectively free. CC BY requires attribution in a prescribed form. CC BY-NC prohibits commercial use - so it is off-limits for a company website.
• Commissioned photography. You hire a photographer. Important: have the usage rights transferred to you in writing, otherwise the images still belong to the photographer.

The most common warning-letter traps

Most problems arise not from bad intent but from a lack of awareness. These are the traps we see most often:

• Missing attribution despite a licence. Many free and even paid licences are clean - but require a specific image credit. If it is missing, the licence is formally breached.
• Image carried over from an old website. During a relaunch, images often migrate along whose licence was never documented.
• Editing the image without permission. Some licences prohibit cropping or altering.
• People without consent. Even with licensed stock photos showing people, certain contexts require a model release - which the stock platform usually provides.
• AI-generated images. The legal situation here is still in flux. Check the terms of use of the AI tool and make sure no protected works or brand logos appear in the image.

How to protect yourself in practice

You do not need to become a lawyer. It is enough to work cleanly and document everything:

• Keep an image list. For every image on your website, note: source, licence type, date, link to the licence terms. That is your evidence in a dispute.
• Save the licence records. For paid platforms, the invoice; for free ones, the licence text as it stood at the time of download.
• Add an image credit if the licence requires it. Usually in the legal notice (Impressum) or directly next to the image.
• Re-check every image during a relaunch. Better to swap an image than to inherit a liability.

When you have nothing to worry about

Not every project needs an expensive image library. If you have your own product or team photos, you are free to use them anyway. For many small websites, a few well-chosen stock images from a reputable platform are perfectly sufficient - that costs little and is legally clean. What matters is not the number of images, but that for each individual one it is clear where it comes from and what the licence permits.

On the websites we build, we clear the image rights as a fixed part of the project: we use only sources with an unambiguous commercial licence, document every file and set up the image credit correctly. That way you get a site that not only looks good, but one you can still sleep soundly with two years from now.